Preen by Thornton Bregazzi

"Why is it all these girls look so soft and I look so
hard?" asked a voice-over on Preen's runway soundtrack.
The rhetorical question was a perfect allusion to
Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi's deftly manipulated
collection.

Preen's clothes are clearly meant to stand out: Slouch
tweed pants were paired with windowpane button-downs
with gathered or ballooned sleeves creating the
top-heavy silhouette that remained a constant
throughout the collection. Thornton and Bregazzi are
known for their way with hides, and this time around
they went for cream leather asymmetric skirts with
button-encrusted sashes; a suede jacket was generously
ruffled at the side, while trousers were cut
perilously low; a series of cropped fur tops brought
to mind a defiantly chic cave woman. As if all this
wasn't enough to make quite a statement, Preen's
embellishments included dangling beaded lace
appliqué's, jangles of rosaries, stitched-on buttons,
and giant rosettes that trailed in the back of skirts.